Unfinished neck - not satin not gloss

I've been looking around.... Is lemon oil best?

tung oil would give you a very nice finish on Maple. 3-6 coats with a 00000 steel wool rub between coats.

Thanks Nick. If it is new, ie not dirty, would the steel wool be needed or just a cloth?

The trick is to first get the wood as smooth as possible before the oil goes on. If the grain of the wood hasn't been raised, wipe it with a wet rage and let it dry, then sand it with fine sandpaper. Then it won't get rough on later exposure to water, sweat, etc., which an oil finish unfortunately WON'T seal out. (Oil finishes are for looks, not protection.) When you oil it, don't leave a thick film of oil on the wood. Rub it in with your hand, then rub it off with your hand. Wipe your hand off on a cloth. The first "coat" may not do much more than darken the wood. After a "coat" or two (with 24 hours' drying between), you'll see that it shines from the microscopically thin film you're leaving. That oil sheen is all you want. If it's thick, it'll attract dust, hairs and lint, make nasty pimples and boogers in the finish, and the whole thing will be a gummy mess.

Oh yeah: Don't keep around rags or paper towels soaked with drying oils like tung or linseed. They get hot as the oil oxidizes, and can spontaneously catch on fire. Best to discard them in an airtight sealed can or immersed in water.

Maybe I am confused. I don't care if it "looks" any particular way, like a shine or whatever. I am mainly concerned with keeping the neck wood in it's best condition. So far I have just wiped it with a cotton cloth but did not know if the wood should have any treatment to stay, for lack of a better word, "healthy" since it is unfinished. If just keeping it clean is fine, I am fine with that. I don't need a sheen or shine ... just want to do right by the wood. Thanks for all the input.... I am new at an unfinished wood concept.

I agree with dampening and sanding to get rid of excess fibre.
(Oil finishes are for looks, not protection

Sorry, but as a man who spent many happy hours in the cold wet winters of Northern England with a shotgun under my arm, I can tell you that an oil finish WILL protect the wood of your neck - although most gun butts used to be finished with artist grade linseed oil. The finish must be renewed occasionally, though.

Boiled Linseed Oil, in the states. Don't use the regular, it will never dry.
Also, I'm pretty sure tung oil is toxic (before it dries, like most wood finishes) so wear gloves if you use your fingers to apply it.
Lemon oil once a year might be enough of a surface treatment.
Some kind of oil treatment probably would help the wood resist absorbing sweat from your hand. This would reduce how much the wood repeatedly soaks up water then dries out, which could lead to surface cracks. That would be annoying on a guitar neck. It also might help keep the neck from collecting sticky grime from your hands (dead skin and oils and dirt) or make it wipe off better. Tung oil seems a popular choice, and it makes a nice thin finish.
This is all hypothesized from my experiences with wood finishes, not guitar necks. I've never had a guitar neck finished in anything but polyurethane or laquer.

3-6 coats of tung oil will provide protection against water, sweat, etc.

Thanks for all the help guys. I knew this was the place to ask :)

Tung oil and 00000 steel wool it is.

Sorry, but as a man who spent many happy hours in the cold wet winters of Northern England with a shotgun under my arm, I can tell you that an oil finish WILL protect the wood of your neck - although most gun butts used to be finished with artist grade linseed oil. The finish must be renewed occasionally, though.Exactly the basis on which I made that statement. I too have plenty of experience toting guns with various stock finishes in all sorts of weather. And I can point you to wood finishing books that agree with my statement. Of course an oil finish gives some protection as opposed to bare wood, but it's less than any other kind of wood finish. It is, however, easily renewed.

Of course, oil won't give the protection of a coating, such as polyurethane, simply because it cannot provide the physical barrier that coatings do. However, such coatings tend not to have a very slippery surface and do wear away, leaving unprotected wood. Oil does not have the same drawback, it can be buffed to a smooth, renewable surface and is water and bodily fluid resistant. Only problem is that preparing the wood and applying the oil is time consuming and, therefore, costly.

Yep. The key is the renewability of the oil finish.

Well I went for it .... I now have a birdseye maple neck on cotton towels on a table here. It looks a bit darker from the first coat .... will probably be Mon. or Tues. before I get it all done and back together. Will the oil finish sorta fade after drying? Meaning lighten up a bit ... it seems darker at the moment. I am glad I have several guitars ... but I do hate to take one out for a few days ;)